The present disclosure relates generally to a method and product for processing digital images, and particularly to a method and product for processing digital images with detection and suppression of background noise.
A digital image is a collection of digital information in the form of pixels that may be processed to provide a visual image representative of an object-of-interest. The digital image may be obtained from digital cameras, digital video, digital scanners, or the like, or may be digitized from an analog film. An exemplary object-of-interest is a biological object, and an exemplary digital scanner is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. While reference may be made herein to MRI as an exemplary scanning method, it will be appreciated that other scanning methods may be employed, such as computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, or X-ray, for example. Digital images of objects that are smaller than the field of view of the scan contain background regions where the signal intensity should be zero. However, variations in the intensities of these background pixels may arise due to noise and other artifacts such as ghosting and gradient warping correction for example. Though noise may be prominent throughout an image, it is most prominent in the background regions where the signal is expected to be zero. The presence of background intensity in an image unnecessarily distracts an observer who may be viewing the final image. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a digital image processing method and product that improves image quality by detecting and suppressing background noise.